That’s The Power of Video

Bjorn and Nitzan (he’s Bjorn and she’s Nitzan), are the lead singer and guitarist in the European rock band Drive Like Maria.

We’ve known them for some time, and their studio is both music studio and video studio. They shoot all their own videos on small cameras and cut all their own music videos on FCP on their own.

What makes this interesting is that they’re here in the US to finish recording their first complete album (is it still called an album? (You can see how old I am. I am referencing Huey Lewis and the News!)) Vinyl sales are still big in England – so I am told). In any event, as a hard rocker band they are entirely self made, videos included. And they have done quite well. Their first record deal is with PIAS, or Play it Again Sam records.

We certainly wish them all the best with their first professionally produced and released album.

But they were able to get this far solely by self promotion and self-produced videos (apparently an intrinsic part of this business).

Here’s a look at some of their stuff:

And a link to their web site, which contains a promotional video that they have yet to post on Youtube, so I can’t embed it, but take a look.

5 responses to “That’s The Power of Video”

and of course you are right – folks from rock bands, to high school sports teams, to police departments and non-profits are learning that they don’t need professional journalists to put their stories out.

Speaking of Scandinavian boy/girl power pop did you know Abba were offered $1,000,000,000 for a reunion tour – they turned it down.

Seems like there’s always room at the top for those with the talent – but VJs time in the sun is going to be very short-lived unless they can climb off the floor.

music saw it’s democratization revolution 40-50 years ago – since then the disparity between those at the top and those at the bottom has grown wider and wider. At the top billions of dollars. At the bottom – its pay to play with millions of often very talented artists never having any real hope of dollar 1.

My little brother is a rock star (the Scissor Sisters, they are big in Europe) and all of their music is recorded and manipulated on a Mac. They do it all, record, mix and what ever else it takes to make music these days.

I think if they could have figured out the marketing angle sooner and could have seen past the big bucks initially offered by the record company that signed them they could have made it ALL by them self for themselves. Little bro isn’t complaining but it must cross his mind what the bottom line would look like if he didn’t have to split a chunk with the “suits”.

What people can produce with these days with a computer, software and some specialized tools, i.e. video cameras or guitars, depending what you want to end up with is nothing short of amazing.

You don’t have to know the “secret code” or rely on a company that has millions of dollars worth of equipment to gain access to the masses these days.

Self produce something that people want to experience and the world is, as they say, your oyster.

BTW, no oyster soup for me quite yet but I have recently quit my “day job”. I am producing little videos for local business full time now. Certainly not making rock star money but at the rate it’s going –down the road, I just might.

You were right Rosneblum, anybody can “do this”, even an old dog like me.